First up, the rumors that Wahlberg will be playing an older, buffer, and decidedly cooler and more well-acted version of LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky: not true. According to TMZ (via /Film), Bay clarified:

No no. The movie will continue four years from the Attack on Chicago; which is in the last movie. So it’s going to still have the same lineage. And it’s going a full new direction and feels very natural how it’s going in that direction, there is no way you’re going to ever find out what the story because you don’t have to dig through my trash but I shredded my trash…Pentagon level encryption on our computers. So good luck to ya!

So, for all those hoping to unlock the complexities of a fourth film about fighting robots, you’re out of luck!

Further, that quote also notes that the film will indeed only be four years after the last one, and that the series is going to move into “a full new direction.” We’re assuming that means plot comprehensibility, maybe? A color scheme beyond teal and orange?